Hundreds of people gathered near the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. statue on the UT campus this morning to honor the life of the slain civil rights leader.

Several people spoke before the crowd, including University of Texas President Bill Powers. He said much has changed since Dr. King visited UT 52 years ago, when athletics and dorms were still segregated.

But Powers also said the campus and the city still have work to do. That was echoed by UT Professor Edmund T. Gordon, chair of the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies.

"Austin is one of the fastest growing cities in the country. However, due to the rising cost of living and gentrification, Austin is losing black residents faster than any other major city in the country," Gordon said.

Those gathered at the MLK statue then joined the Manor High drum corps as they marched to Huston-Tillotson University.

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The flood-stricken neighborhood of Onion Creek honored the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today by cleaning a community park that’s been covered with debris since last year’s Halloween flood.

Metallic doors, glass from broken windows, gas tanks were among the many items strewn about the park. Mary-Lee Plumb-Mentjes filled an entire bucket with broken glass. “I’ve always picked up trash,” Plumb-Mentjes said. “We’ve been given two hands [and] I feel we should use [them] when we see something,”

The annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day march from the University of Texas at Austin campus to Huston-Tillotson University starts at 9 a.m. Marchers will meet at the MLK statue near Speedway and West 23rd Street at UT.

An MLK Day festival begins at Huston-Tillotson after the march. It runs until 3 p.m.

There will be some road and lane closures for the march and festival – affected roadways include the I-35 frontage roads, North Congress Avenue and 11th Street.